AROUND THE INTERNET #4

I'm currently posting from New Zealand but this was back when the snow was minimal and charming, I switched hemispheres before it got real. 

An accurate description of what it's like to work from home. 

Let's all just start dressing in full monochrome because how great does this gal look doing it?  

You know what you're probably missing in your life? An all-girl, low fi Spanish indie rock band from Madrid that wear scrunchies. Start here and here with Hinds. 

Someone buy me this. 

Like I needed another reason to adore Chance the Rapper. 

Quite a bit of my days this fall and winter was spent sloshing around JP listening to How I Built This + 2 Dope Queens. I highly recommend both. 

A Better Way to Argue About Politics

Paula Scher on the creative process: "I think your mind is like a giant slot machine. On one side of your brain, you have all the experiences of your life: every influence, everything that ever inspired you, everything that’s ever made you angry, everything you’ve ever thought, just rolling around in there. It’s fodder. On the other side of your brain is where you input a specific brief, and the specific brief has all the constraints and needs of the particular situation. It all sort of rolls around like a slot machine. You want the brief to line up with a perfect piece of fodder. You pull that fodder to make analogies and make points. It may be something that’s stylistic, or may be a pointed reference of some sort, and these things come together and solve the problem. Now, how does the machine work? How do you know it’s going to work? You don’t."

PREACH: Being Lazy Is the Key to Success. 

MAGGIE ROGERS IN BURLINGTON, VERMONT

Maggie Rogers at Higher Ground

Mojitos and post-show Jazz at Radio Bean

Gingerbread house AirBnB

Last summer I stumbled across this video then proceeded to listen to Alaska over and over and over again through the fall.

Then one night at 2 AM in January I bought a single ticket to a Monday night Maggie Rogers show in Burlington, Vermont because her first tour wasn't stopping anywhere near Boston.  

I woke up the next morning with the kind of vague regret that usually only accompanies heavy champagne consumption (the $12 ticket seemed like a bit of rash purchase as she had only released 2 songs at that point). Nevertheless, I packed a bag that Monday morning and drove 3 hours in the snow to Burlington. 

Going to a show by yourself is kind of like a weird form of meditation. You find yourself standing quite still (as to not bump into anyone to avoid polite conversation), very mindful as to what is going on around you (like noticing how the kids in Burlington get dressed up for a night out in what I would wear snow-shoeing) and quietly reflecting back on the last time you were in this situation (Fall 2004, early Freshman year, at a tiny John Legend show in a BC basement class room. I barely had any friends at that point and none of them had ever heard of John Legend). 

To my relief, her set consisted of more than 2 songs and her modesty ("I feel like new artists shouldn't really play an encore. The Rolling Stones should play an encore but not me") and enthusiasm ("Oh my god, thank you all so much for coming! This is the biggest crowd we've ever had! Well, I've ever had. My band has played a lot more shows than me. This is only my 5th show. Thank you so much!") was sweet and genuine.

She was also amazing live. It was definitely worth the drive. 

The rest of my time in Burlington consisted of coffee shop hopping (Uncommon Grounds is good for people watching and Muddy Waters is like dining in a tree house) scoring a signed copy of Maria Semple's Today Will Be Different at Crow Bookshop and talking politics and watching Trevor Noah with my AirBnB host. 

It was a great winter trip to Vermont.

P.S. Maggie Rogers now has an EP out, called Now That the Light is Fading, if you'd like to check it out. It has 5 (!) songs on it. And her new US and European tours are selling like hotcakes. Go if you can. 

APPLE PICKING

Jess and I entered full on, basic-bitches-in-fall mode for a morning of Apple picking at Smolak Farms in North Andover.

We went so late in the season that we were the only ones in the orchard but we fully immersed ourselves in the autumnal spirit with hot apple cider, apple cider donuts and bags of apples which I had big plans for (apple sauce! apple crumble! apple pie!) but then just ate raw over the next month because honestly, who has time for that. 

These boots were in no way practical for the occasion but they perfectly matched my hat which was just begging to visit an apple orchard. Look at that hat. Where else was I gonna wear that hat.    

A TRIP TO THE MET, NYC

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When climbing the stairs to the museum, I thought to myself "I think this is where Serena and Blair used to sit every day before school".

It was the perfect blend of both high and low NYC culture. 

NEW YORK CITY #2

Pizza at Patsy's

As I was in NYC in September 2016, this was wonderful to see... but now, is crushing to look at. 

Caught up with Denise from my days at MTV.

One World Trader Center.

Oculus. Which is bananas.

NEW YORK CITY

A long weekend trip to NYC. (Posted 6 months later)

A foreigner and Lady Liberty.

Note the tiny NYC resident peering at me, the tourist, walking on the High Line. 

Each day we rode through Brooklyn from our Bed-Stuy AirBnB and whizzed over bridges to explore the (remarkably bike friendly) island of Manhattan. 

More soon.